Berliner Redensarten: / Oh! Bange machen gelt nich!, before 1835

CommentaryThe Deutsche Plakat Museum’s collection contains numerous flyers and notices from the 17th to 19th centuries. Together with these precursors of posters are also graphic works, illustrations and caricatures that illustrate contemporary reaction to the new medium. This caricature by Franz Burchard Dörbeck shows a typical moment in the early days of posters.

So-called ›uncontrolled posting‹ disfigures German cities up into the first half of the 19th century. There were no rules, and everybody stuck his notice where he saw fit. Attempts to counteract this by founding associations (local defence clubs), through bans, edicts and notices had little success. Only Ernst Litfaß’s (1816-1874) so-called ›Litfaßsäule‹ (advertising columns) provided relief, at first in Berlin. The night before the inauguration of the first Litfaßsäule on July 1, 1855, all the notices and posters in the district were torn down and masses of policemen stationed on the streets to prevent new ones being put up.

The Deutsche Plakat Museum’s collection contains numerous flyers and notices from the 17th to 19th centuries. Together with these precursors of posters are also graphic works, illustrations and caricatures that illustrate contemporary reaction to the new medium. This caricature by Franz Burchard Dörbeck shows a typical moment in the early days of posters.

So-called ›uncontrolled posting‹ disfigures German cities up into the first half of the 19th century. There were no rules, and everybody stuck his notice where he saw fit. Attempts to counteract this by founding associations (local defence clubs), through bans, edicts and notices had little success. Only Ernst Litfaß’s (1816-1874) so-called ›Litfaßsäule‹ (advertising columns) provided relief, at first in Berlin. The night before the inauguration of the first Litfaßsäule on July 1, 1855, all the notices and posters in the district were torn down and masses of policemen stationed on the streets to prevent new ones being put up.